Household chores as the main source of physical activity: Perspectives of pregnant Pakistani women

Objective: To understand the level of physical activity in pregnant women and to identify perceived facilitators and barriers faced by them. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from January to June 2016 at Aga Khan Maternity and Child Care Centre, Hyderabad, Pakistan, and comprised pregnant women attending the antenatal clinics. They were administered the pregnancy physical activity questionnaire while additional questions were asked to assess perceived barriers and facilitators in pregnancy. SPSS 19 was used for data analysis.Results: Of the 455 subjects, 179(36%) were physically active. Their median metabolic equivalent of task hours per week was 14.65 (interquartile range=0-105.8). The overall mean age of subjects was 26±4.47 years, while the mean gestational age was 24±10 weeks. Household activity had a strong positive correlation with total activity (p\u3c0.05). Reported barriers included lack of energy and lack of information regarding benefits of physical activity, and facilitators included support from family and affordable facilities in the area of residence.Conclusion: Majority of the pregnant women failed to meet the daily recommendations for physical activity

Enhancement of total antioxidants and flavonoid (quercetin) by methyl jasmonate elicitation in tissue cultures of onion (Allium cepa L.)

The onion (Allium cepa) is a vegetable used extensively all over the world both for culinary purposes as well as in medicine. Its medicinal values are due to the high levels of biologically-active compounds present within the bulb. There are various phytochemicals of therapeutic importance found in A. cepa. Quercetin, a flavonoid, is one of these phytochemicals and it is a potent antioxidant. Allium cepa is a dietary supplement and is beneficial for diverse ailments, thus justifying its status as a valuable medicinal plant. Due to its medicinal significance, elicitation of total antioxidants and quercetin levels have been attempted to enhance their production in tissue callus cultures. This study reports in vitro enhancement of total antioxidants and quercetin in A. cepa using methyl jasmonate as an elicitor. A reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was used with an isocratic system and a flow rate of 1.0 mL min−1 and a mobile phase of acetonitrile: 1% v/v acetic acid (60%:40% v/v). The detection wavelength was 362 nm and the retention time 8.79 minutes. Total antioxidant and quercetin contents were maximal with 100 µM of methyl jasmonate in leaf tissue callus cultures at 84.61 ±6.03% and 0.81 ±0.03 mg g−1 dry cell weight, respectively. They decreased with further increases of methyl jasmonate at 200 µM. The increase in total antioxidant and quercetin contents were 2.3- and 13.9-fold, respectively. The optimization of methyl jasmonate as an elicitor, as well as the determination of a suitable concentration in A. cepa in callus cultures, will be helpful for enhanced production of various other secondary metabolites of therapeutic significance. This could be beneficial for the pharmaceutical and neutraceutical industries for herbal drug formulations

Current Breast Feeding Practices: Are these Compliant with WHO Recommendations?

Background: To study  the current breast feeding practices in mothers who underwent caesarean section and to what extent these comply with the world health organization (WHO) recommendations. Methods: This  cross-sectional study was based on a survey conducted on women delivered by caesarean section .Proforma built for the survey was completed by interviewing of the subjects. Frequencies of the observations were described as means and percentages.  Pearson chi square test was used to find association between early initiation of breast feeding (EIBF) and independent variables. Binary logistic regression was used to investigate association of factors with EIBF independently. Results: EIBF was found in 15% of infant-mother pairs. All other mothers-infant pairs (85 %) started early breast feeding(EBF) i.e.  breast feeding (BF_ between 2 to 24 hours after delivery. Majority of infants were given a drink, other than breast milk, within 24 after delivery. Counselling or assistance for EIBF or exclusive breast feeding was not provided by healthcare workers to any mother. Main factor significantly associated with initiating breastfeeding during 1st hour after caesarean delivery was attendant’s awareness about recommendation of EIBF. Conclusion: There is poor adherence to WHO recommendations for early initiation of breast feeding i.e. during 1st hour after birth. However, EBF was found in all mothers who did not start EIB

The Effectiveness of Virtual Classroom Learning in Islamic Early Childhood Education

This research aims to find out the effectiveness of virtual classroom learning in an early childhood education environment. The research method used was case study method at PrayataSubang Playing Group. Data is primarily collected through in-depth interviews, observations, and documentation studies with parents, teachers, and children. We analyze the data collected related to the use of virtual classrooms and see their efficiency. The findings lead to virtual classroom learning implemented using several applicators such as Zoom, Whatsapp Video Call, Instagram Live, Youtube, and Quizzi. The implementation of learning has been quite effective judged by several indicators such as the participation of students in following learning is good, parents play an active role in accompanying and assisting children learning, and teachers who are creative and innovative in providing learning. Keywords: Virtual classroom; effectiveness; early childhoo

1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity of novel dihydropyridine derivatives

Thirteen dihydropyridine analogues 1-13 were synthesized and evaluated for their DPPH radical scavenging activity. A good to moderate antioxidant activity ranging from 127.4 to 284.5 μM was observed and structure-activity relationship was established. The 3'-fluoro derivative 8 (IC50 = 127.4±3.5 μM) was found to exhibit highest activity among the dihydro pyridine derivatives 1-13, while the other derivatives 11 (IC50 = 132.5±3.32 μM), 6 (IC50 = 142.2±0.60 μM), 10 (IC50 = 144.7±2.46 μM), 12 (IC50 = 153.7±0.50 μM), 5 (IC50 = 161.4±2.81 μM) and 5 (IC50 = 164.4±2.50 μM) possess moderate activity, depends upon the C-4 and C-6 substituted groups. The compounds 7, 13, 4, 3 and 2 have lowest IC50 values, ranging between 172.8 and 284.5 μM. Dihydropyridine analogues were characterized by spectroscopic techniques

Kata Netizen tentang Kesetaraan Gender dalam Sentimen Warganet Twitter

Abstract: Gender equality is one of the goals in the Sustainable Development Goals. However, until now Indonesia is still having difficulties in achieving this goal. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) data, Indonesia's Gender Inequality Index (GII) is ranked 107 out of 189 countries. In addition, according to The Global Gender Gap Index 2021 data by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Indonesia is ranked 105th out of 153 countries. This shows that Indonesia is still lagging behind in terms of gender equality. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the sentiments of Indonesian twitter netizens regarding gender equality in 2018-2021 and its accuracy. Data was collected from primary data, scraping twitter data with the keywords #kesetaraan and #gender in Indonesian. The method used is Lexicon-based Sentiment Analysis with AFINN-111 dictionary translated into Indonesian. The results obtained are that the percentage of positive sentiments tends to decrease from year to year except for 2021. On the contrary, the negative sentiments of Twitter tend to increase. This is due to controversial articles in RKUHP, RUU Cipta Kerja, Covid-19 pandemic, and the online gender-based violence. This shows that the gender equality in Indonesia is still minimal and needs to be improved. Keywords: AFINN-111, gender equality, lexicon-based sentiment analysis, text mining, twitter Abstrak: Kesetaraan gender termasuk tujuan pada Sustainable Development Goals. Namun hingga saat ini Indonesia masih kesulitan dalam mencapai tujuan tersebut. Menurut data United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), nilai Gender Inequality Index (GII) Indonesia menempati peringkat 107 dari 189 negara. Selain itu, menurut data The Global Gender Gap Index 2021 dari World Economic Forum (WEF), Indonesia menempati posisi ke-105 dari total 153 negara. Hal ini membuktikan gender di Indonesia masih belum setara. Oleh karena itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis sentiment netizen twitter Indonesia mengenai kesetaraan gender pada 2018-202i dan akurasinya. Data dikumpulkan dari data primer yaitu scraping data twitter dengan keyword #kesetaraangender dan #gender dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Metode yang digunakan adalah Lexicon-based Sentiment Analysis dengan bantuan kamus AFINN-111 yang diterjemahkan dalam Bahasa Indonesia pada software python. Hasil yang diperoleh adalah persentase sentimen positif netizen twitter cenderung menurun dari tahun ke tahun kecuali 2021, sebaliknya sentimen negatif netizen twitter cenderung meningkat setiap tahun. Hal ini dikarenakan adanya pasal yang mengandung kontroversi pada Rancangan Kitab Undang-undang Hukum Pidana (RKUHP), RUU Cipta Kerja, adanya pandemi Covid-19, dan maraknya kekerasan berbasis gender online. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa tingkat kesetaraan gender di Indonesia masih minim dan perlu untuk ditingkatkan kedepannya. Kata kunci: AFINN-111, kesetaraan gender, lexicon-based sentiment analysis, text mining, twitte

Patriarchy and counter discourses: a critique of female subordination in dangarembga's nervous conditions

The present study is a critique of an African English novel Nervous Conditions to explore how the writer speaks back to the patriarchal oppression. For this purpose, the researchers intend to explore the patterns of female subordination in African patriarchal society and the ways with which women resist this oppressive system as embedded in Nervous Conditions. The study utilizes Walby's (1990) concept of 'private patriarchy' from his theory of patriarchy. Radical feminism as a feminist perspective of patriarchy provided the theoretical background to carry out this study. Grounded in qualitative research design, the present study utilizes qualitative textual analysis to identify the meaningful patterns working to highlight and challenge patriarchal oppression in the text. The results of the study indicate that the text under study highlights the subordination of African women through seven patterns where they are shown to be a victim of discrimination in the familial domain regarding food distribution, the burden of household work, educational opportunities, daily living conditions, child gender preference, and in freedom of mobility and freedom of opinion/decision. Moreover, the reaction of the women towards this subordination is identified concerning three different aspects where women escape, get entrapped or rebel against this patriarchal system. The study has found Nervous Conditions a challenging narrative that questions the unjust female subordination in a patriarchal society. The researchers conclude the study by substantiating Dangarembga's stance that this game of entrapment, rebellion and escape is disastrous for the females and humanity as a whole

Substitution spectra of SARS-CoV-2 genome from Pakistan reveals insights into the evolution of variants across the pandemic

Changing morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 across the pandemic has been linked with factors such as the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and vaccination. Mutations in the Spike glycoprotein enhanced viral transmission and virulence. We investigated whether SARS-CoV-2 mutation rates and entropy were associated COVID-19 in Pakistan, before and after the introduction of vaccinations. We analyzed 1,705 SARS-CoV-2 genomes using the Augur phylogenetic pipeline. Substitution rates and entropy across the genome, and in the Spike glycoprotein were compared between 2020, 2021 and 2022 (as periods A, B and C). Mortality was greatest in B whilst cases were highest during C. In period A, G clades were predominant, and substitution rate was 5.25 × 10-4 per site per year. In B, Delta variants dominated, and substitution rates increased to 9.74 × 10-4. In C, Omicron variants led to substitution rates of 5.02 × 10-4. Genome-wide entropy was the highest during B particularly, at Spike E484K and K417N. During C, genome-wide mutations increased whilst entropy was reduced. Enhanced SARS-CoV-2 genome substitution rates were associated with a period when more virulent SARS-CoV-2 variants were prevalent. Reduced substitution rates and stabilization of genome entropy was subsequently evident when vaccinations were introduced. Whole genome entropy analysis can help predict virus evolution to guide public health interventions